Which act provides guidelines for securing financial information and prohibits sharing with third parties?

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA) establishes specific guidelines for financial institutions regarding the privacy and security of consumer financial information. One of the key provisions of the GLBA is that it requires financial institutions to disclose their privacy policies to consumers and allows consumers to opt-out of having their information shared with non-affiliated third parties. This means that under the GLBA, financial institutions must take steps to safeguard sensitive financial data and restrict its dissemination without proper consent, offering a layer of protection to consumers' personal information.

The importance of this act lies in its focus on maintaining consumer trust in financial institutions and ensuring that individuals' financial details are kept confidential unless authorized by the consumer. This builds a framework for accountability regarding how financial data is handled, reflecting a crucial aspect of security in the financial sector. The other acts mentioned address different areas of privacy and data protection, such as health information and educational records, but they do not specifically cater to the unique needs of financial information security as outlined in the GLBA.